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Above: Compasses and maps helped get from here to there. Right: Basketry made into furniture.
Paper and pencils are inexpensive and dependable.
Some lenses for eyes led to microscopes, telescopes and useful magnifying glasses.
You might suppose that having a degree in history from a reputable university (UNC Charlotte), having taught history and allied subjects for more than 30 years and having authored three books on local history, that our TV would have the History Channel permanently and exclusively locked in.
However, I happened to be watching TV last Monday night and decided to view a program on the History Channel dealing with inventions. The program was immodestly titled, “History’s Greatest of All Time.” Greatest of All Time is abbreviated these days as “GOAT.”
The program was hosted, so to speak, by that well-known athlete, Peyton Manning. The affable Mr. Manning did a fine job and injected some humor into the program: “What? Where’s football on the list?”
The premise of the program was that “100 experts,” names not given, were asked what they thought were history’s greatest inventions. The program then went on to highlight the “top 10.” It was mentioned that in some cases there were disagreements among those polled as to which invention went where in the listing.
I fetched a pencil and paper and wrote down the inventions as they were presented, thinking to share this list with my son, who teaches history at a local high school whose mascot is a Blue Devil. He, my son, might have missed the program.
And the winners were, ranked by importance from 10th place to second place: flushable toilet, telegraph, radio, steam engine, automobile, internet, telephone, the computer and the light bulb.
I will save the revelation of the winner for the end of this column. Without looking ahead, see if you can guess which invention was the “winner.” Write it down. No cheating!
I think an interesting way to pass an hour or so in a high school history class would be to have students make their own lists of the top 10 inventions and then tabulate the results. I would wager there would be some really interesting items on their lists!
After the program concluded, I got to thinking about some inventions that were not mentioned which might have been considered. These are, in no particular order: pottery, weaving/basketry, soap, bow and arrow, clock, compass, steel, gunpowder, glass lenses (leading to eyeglasses and the microscope), the electric generator and some kind of alphabet or writing system. I think a strong case could be made for each of these.
One might include such humble creations as paper towels and duct tape, two indispensable items for our culture. And how about antibiotics? While antibiotics, like penicillin, were not invented but were discovered, someone invented the processes by which these medicines are made in large quantities. How many lives have been thus saved?
You realize, of course, that there are cases when an invention was being developed by several people simultaneously, as in the case of the Wright brothers and a fellow named Samuel P. Langley (1834-1906), all of whom were working on developing a heavier-than-air flying machine. Mr. Langley, who was also the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, came very near to beating our friends Orville and Wilbur in the invention of the aeroplane (old spelling). You may have noted that the airplane did not make the top 10 list, but probably would have been in the top 20.
Some of the inventions listed above would not have come about without some of the other inventions which preceded them, case in point being the internet, which depends on the invention of the digital computer and the generation of electricity, radio or (telegraph or telephone) wires and the light bulb, which is in the form of the millions of pixels on your computer screen a cathode ray tube (CRT).
The winner, the GOAT, was (a trumpet fanfare here) the printing press with movable type, with credit primarily going to Johannes Gutenberg. Mr. Gutenberg’s birth and death dates have not been completely resolved.
My personal choice of History’s GOAT would be that ubiquitous pair, pencil and paper, which I used to take notes while watching the TV program.
I went to the internet (not the same as the World Wide Web) and queried it regarding history’s greatest inventions. Here is what I got, ranked greatest to less great: wheel, printing press, penicillin, compass, light bulb, telephone, internal combustion engine, contraceptives, the internet, nails, use of fire, concrete, magnifying glass, batteries, marine chronometer (a very accurate clock), airplane, refrigerator, nuclear energy, vaccines and X-rays.
What do you think? Your nominations?
O.C. Stonestreet is the author of “Tales From Old Iredell County,” “They Called Iredell County Home” and “Once Upon a Time … in Mooresville, NC.”
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Above: Compasses and maps helped get from here to there. Right: Basketry made into furniture.
Paper and pencils are inexpensive and dependable.
Some lenses for eyes led to microscopes, telescopes and useful magnifying glasses.
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